53rd Cucalambeana Fiesta Online

Coquettish, with the smell of the coffee made in a cloth strainer, she moves away from the hammock. In the necessary time for a rooster to sing, she puts a poppy in her hair and saddles the foal, which with the folds of the dress looks like a huge sea poppy. But she does not leave the hut to go to El Cornito where Juan Cristóbal lived, this time she will connect to the Internet. Homages await her in the form of exhibitions, forums, book presentations, guateques ... And she, the Cucalambeana Fiesta, wants to dream again of the lullaby of tradition.

Las Tunas, Cuba.- The 53rd Cucalambean Fiesta, an unusual event, has already opened its virtual arms due to its current characteristics. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube are the platforms that host the event. Yes, we will miss the bamboo and that of walking with a hat and scarf under a sun that smells of verses, but the national stanza is contagious and also slips into the network of networks, with the participation of folk singers, repentistas, troubadours, writers and exponents, in general, of cultural expressions of some 18 countries, according to Yanetsy Ramírez León, a specialist in International Relations of the Provincial Directorate of Culture.

"On the Cuban side, friends of always accompany us, including Emiliano Sardiñas, Tomasita Quiala, Sindi Manuel, Orismai Hernández, María Victoria Rodríguez, Luis Paz. , Dimitri Tamayo, the Maraguán and Camagua groups, from the City of Tinajones, and the National Council of Cultural centers,” says Anais Ray, head of Creation of the System of Cultural Centers in the territory.

Among the attractions of the event are samples of landscape, traditional dishes, crafts and images that speak of rural women in their social and work environment. For children, there is the Cantos de Colibrí space, where décimas, oral narrations, tonadas and other proposals can be enjoyed.

The movement of amateur artists is inserted in the activities with participants such as the members of the Viajera Peninsular children’s workshop of repentismo and tonadas, from this capital city, and the national category groups Origins and Impact, both from this province.

The theoretical segment is represented by the forums By the trails of singing and verse (today at 9:30 am), and Diversity, essence and identity (tomorrow at the same time), both defenders of an important part of the intangible heritage of the nation, the one that throbs in the peasant task.

The "Cucalambeana," made a woman of verses and tenderness, is happy. Last night, 10 poets sang to her on the Palmas y Cañas television program. Although they were awarded prizes, for her they are all winners for defending one of the oldest manifestations of Cuban culture: the décima.

Today other rhapsodists pay tribute to her; she knows that when she returns to her bohío she will not be alone. Although her audience may not be "in the shade of a palm grove / that bathes the fertile Cornito", she will feel protected. In each beat of Cuba that overflows until Wednesday, there will be the tribute to the 191 years of Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo (El Cucalambé), the greatest bucolic poet of the 19th century in the country and to the 95th birthday of the folk dance group Petit Dancé, from Las Tunas.